


The Darkest Hour Of The Darkest Night Comes Right Before The Dawn

by coastalhorror



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Gen, I love him so much but he had to die for this fic rip, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Shuichi and Kaito are dead in this :/, graphic description of death, specifically Shuichi's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24401881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coastalhorror/pseuds/coastalhorror
Summary: Taking a deep and shaking breath in, Maki turned to the side and the site that caught her eyes made her blood run cold. A few feet from her and wobbling on his feet the slightest bit, Kokichi Ouma stood, crying. She hadn’t even heard him, and from the looks of it, nobody else had noticed yet. His hands were clenched into fists at his side, and almost definitely his nails were drawing blood, or at least close to. His chest was heaving rapidly causing his entire frame to shake violently. Maki believed this could all be chalked up to anger, pure and unbridled until she took a look at his face. Ouma’s cheeks were red and wet, large tears rolling down and off his face from his swollen eyes.
Relationships: Harukawa Maki & Oma Kokichi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 94





	The Darkest Hour Of The Darkest Night Comes Right Before The Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello!!!!!! I wrote this because I saw a really interesting tik tok dsjshdkjabvh ( her @ is redbloodyscooter on tik tok, give her a follow!!!!!! This was meant to be finished way sooner but school has been slaughtering me recently :( 
> 
> anyway! this was mainly a character exploration fic where I found out I really like writing Maki!!
> 
> Also Shuichi is a huge comfort character for me so I really can't imagine him murdering anyone, which is why I had him framed for murder, but I think that worked in favor of the plot so! whatever! 
> 
> It is 1:11 am and this is super not beta read, and also I tried some different approaches to writing this so that's why it's different from my usual writing if you've read it! 
> 
> Warnings: Graphic descriptions of a character execution, characters getting yelled at. 
> 
> If you would like to skip the execution description stop reading at: "After that the trial had ended fairly quickly." and resume at: "It was now 12:15 according to the gaudy digital clock across the way-"
> 
> If you would like to skip the yelling stop reading at: "Ouma’s cheeks were red and wet, large tears rolling down and off his face from his swollen eyes." and resume at "Her gaze drifted over to Shirogane as she adjusted her glasses, glaring towards Ouma."

_ 12:13 A.M. _

There was blood on Maki’s clothes, deceivingly pretty and dripping off her still frame in clots. Her fingers trembled under long sleeves and from her peripherals she was able to see Yumeno clutching her arms and shaking almost violently. Maki refused to look in front of her — unable to bear witness to the horrible carnage that had become of one of the two people in this stupid killing game that she had actually trusted. The other long-dead, found in his dorm room and poisoned. Her eyes blurred with tears she refused to let fall. 

It had been their longest trial yet, and Saihara hadn’t skimped on taking precautions. Hell, they had only figured out he was the culprit as a result of Shirogane’s theory, and suffice to say nobody took it well. Maki couldn’t (read wouldn’t) believe it at first, even though all the facts had been laid bare for all to see. Looking at Saihara it was impossible to see a murderer. Sure the boy had a sort of disheveled look, and he could be holed up in his dorm for days on end without eating, but that didn’t mean he’d  _ kill _ anyone. He could barely look the rest of the students in their eyes for goodness sake!

But then she saw the way he was staring at Shirogane — all focused and unwavering, something that only happened during the class trials, and her mindset faltered. Behind his eyes, and beneath all his focus and theories and all the thoughts running through his head, Maki saw recognition. She saw hurt and anger and a flurry of other emotions wash over his face, and then those dull golden eyes flickered over to her. She saw him steel himself, watched as the flame in his eyes dimmed as he realized he wasn’t getting out of this alive. 

After that, the trial had ended fairly quickly. Saihara was condemned, much to the dismay of what was left of their class. (It was funny, she thought, that a girl who was trained to kill, a robot, a compulsive liar, and a magician who’d rather be asleep than doing much of anything else had survived this far, contrary to others more innocent.) Maki had to bite her cheek to keep herself from looking away from his execution. Saihara had found himself at the top of a clocktower, and were it not for the circumstances the scene could have been beautiful, the entire platform bathed in a bronze light. Suddenly he was racing down the spiraling stairs of the tower, an axe murderer following him almost as quickly. Once he had reached the bottom the man had slipped and sliced his own head off. Maki knew better than to breathe in relief as the large bell from above tumbled down, down, down, and then she looked away. She wasn’t able to stop herself from hearing the deafening  _ ‘clang’  _ of the bell as it found its target, however. 

It was now 12:15 A.M. according to the gaudy digital clock across the way, Saihara’s blood was soaking into her clothes and infecting her skin, and Maki knew who the mastermind was. She trusted Saihara enough to gather that when he looked to her for the last time, desperately hoping she knew that he would never kill Momota, he would never betray their trust like that. She could only guess that he’d gotten in over his head while trying to unravel the mystery of this school, and because of that Shirgane had killed him, had poisoned Momota, and framed Saihara for his murder. Maki was going to make sure she never got the chance to do anything like that again. 

Taking a deep and shaking breath in, Maki turned to the side and the site that caught her eyes made her blood run cold. A few feet from her and wobbling on his feet the slightest bit, Kokichi Ouma stood, crying. She hadn’t even heard him, and from the looks of it, nobody else had noticed yet. His hands were clenched into fists at his side, and almost definitely his nails were drawing blood, or at least close to. His chest was heaving rapidly causing his entire frame to shake violently. Maki believed this could all be chalked up to anger, pure and unbridled until she took a look at his face. Ouma’s cheeks were red and wet, large tears rolling down and off his face from his swollen eyes. 

Her jaw clenched. “You jackass,” she all but growled, turning fully to face the smaller boy. “You have absolutely no right to be crying right now.” Breaking the distance between them, glowering down at him. Maki’s eyes must have been playing tricks on her, she almost believed she saw him  _ flinch  _ once she had fully crossed over. Ouma’s eyes wouldn’t meet hers, instead focused solely on the place where the oversized bronze bell had landed. “You didn’t even know him, what the  _ hell  _ is wrong with you.” 

“Harukawa? What are you doing?” Kiibo called, although Maki barely registered it. The blood rushing through her ears was noise enough to fill her consciousness and distract her from all rational thought. She could feel her heart beating in her chest, fast and uneasy, as if it too was furious at this boy — at this  _ game.  _

It had taken so much from all of them, had depleted all the happiness and domesticity of everyday living. Maki hadn’t had much of any of that before this game anyway, but she knew her classmates did. They had futures, they were all going to go so far in life and become amazing people. Now more than half of them were dead,  _ murdered.  _ It almost made her feel guilty to keep living, knowing that there were people more worthy than herself, who had full lives ahead of them, and all she had in front of her if she survived this was more sadness and anger. More wasted youth. 

But that’s not what Momota would have wanted, not what Saihara, or Tojo, or hell even what  _ Akamatsu  _ would have wanted — though Maki didn’t think Akamatsu had any bearing on how she felt, she supposed the intention still counted for something. 

She hadn’t registered her hand reaching up to the boy in front of her until she felt the soft cotton of his checkered scarf in her hand. The fury Maki was feeling returned, but this time she felt it crack, there was something wrong about this that she couldn’t put her finger on. 

Her fist curled around the delicate scarf and she pulled. “What do you think you’ve ever done to deserve to be mourning right now,” Maki’s voice was tight, as she looked down at the so-called Supreme Leader. He was so small and right now it looked as if he were going to collapse had it not been for her holding onto him. “Answer me!” she yelled, shaking him roughly, as he wobbled. He was a small and trembling white rabbit caught in a trap and she was a wolf baring all her teeth as she inched closer, ready to clamp down on his neck and wring him of all his dirty lies. 

Ouma simply blinked, as if he weren’t being manhandled, and lifted his gaze to Maki slowly. She narrowed her eyes, something wasn’t right. Ouma’s eyes were usually alight with some sort of mischief as if just by looking at him directly was a trick he’d concocted. During the class trials, his eyes were blazing and cold and remorseless all at once. Although she rarely interacted or even  _ saw _ Ouma outside of the trials, Maki knew enough to figure out that this was wrong. His eyes were dull and glazed over as he stared at her as if all life had been siphoned out of them. She wasn’t superstitious but this paired with what came out of his mouth next was almost enough to make her think the boy was possessed. 

Almost. 

His voice wavered when he spoke, and when he first opened his mouth only a small croaking noise came out. (Tentatively she wondered if she had tugged too hard at his throat.) Maki saw him swallow his words carefully, and after another long moment, he was finally able to get his words out. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, tears welling up in his eyes once more as he watched Maki cautiously, but not long after his gaze darted to the floor. 

She released her grip on the smaller boys’ scarf, her hand falling limply at her side, and Maki had to restrain herself from taking a step back. None of this was right. Ouma shouldn’t be crying over their departed classmate — shouldn’t be  _ shaking  _ the way he was. She knew he was small, Maki doubted he even reached 166 centimeters in height, and by the looks of it he was pretty underweight, but right now, despite his height and usually confident demeanor, Ouma looked  _ frail _ . He looked as if he would fall to the ground at any moment, and yeah they had all just witnessed an execution but as far as she was aware he’d never acted this way afterward. 

Before Maki could respond she saw Yumeno grow red a few feet away, her face screwed up incandescently. “What do you mean you’re ‘sorry’! You’ve never tried to help us at all, or even  _ try _ to make people like you!” Yumeno shouted harshly. “Everyone else has at least sort of been nice, or helpful, but you haven’t done either! At least when Chabashira died I was actually kind of sad for her, but you’ve never even tried to make friends with anyone here!” Maki didn’t think she’d ever seen the girl get this worked up before, even when Chabashira had died all Yumeno did was cry, there was barely a hint of anger there at all. 

“You’re such a liar Ouma, just stop pretending to care already and go away! Saihara could have gotten us out of here and now he’s dead and we’re all going to die too and you’re going to die all alone because you’ve never tried being nice to anyone!” There were tears in Yumeno’s eyes, but she looked frustrated more than anything else, her fists were clenched at her sides, she almost looked about ready to explode. 

“Yumeno’s right, you’ve never once tried to help us. In fact, I believe it could be said that you’ve actually tried to hinder us,” came a voice from her left, making Maki grit her teeth. “You’ve lied during all the class trials, and you know what’d happen to everyone if we choose the wrong culprit! Even though I’m a plain old everyday person I don’t want to die y’know.” 

Her gaze drifted over to Shirogane as she adjusted her glasses, glaring towards Ouma. Maki’s own fists were nearing the point of drawing blood on her palms as she watched the “Ultimate Cosplayer”. She wondered how nobody had figured out she was the Mastermind until Saihara found out, she did go on about being plain all the time after all, which is in and of itself suspicious. Biting her tongue, Maki turned away, and was met once again with something she wasn’t expecting to find. 

Ouma wasn’t looking at anyone, instead opting to stare at the floor, but that wasn’t what was odd. In his eyes, in contrast to the dull sadness from before was  _ anger _ . She supposed it was natural at this point, he just had three people yell and reprimand him, but when she looked at him, it didn’t seem like he was angry at Yumeno, or Maki herself even. He was staring at a portion of the floor nearest to Shirogane, which wasn’t that weird considering she had been the last to speak, but Maki was certain there was something deep and burning in those purple irises of his; as if she had personally slaughtered his childhood pet. Which honestly could have been possible in some weird way given how she had just framed Saihara for murder. 

She watched as he rubbed his thumb against the back of his index finger — a nervous tic of some sort, or perhaps a tell. Ouma was smart, Maki knew enough about him to give him that. He was conniving and a deviant and if given the chance to leave this place, she doubted he’d let anyone else know. Though she had been doubting herself a lot lately. 

Maki flinched as a cold hand was placed on her forearm — a robotic hand. She quickly withdrew it from his grasp. “Right, Harukawa?” Kiibo asked. 

“What?” She all but growled, immediately fighting the response to grimace, she really didn’t mean to sound so upset, especially since Kiibo had only been asking a question. 

“We should all head back to our dorms,” he responded, frowning slightly. “I think we could all use some time to ourselves for a little bit.” He seemed to be watching her, quite intently in fact. She guessed he assumed she would do something rash. Which was dumb. Maki liked to think she had pretty good control over her actions, despite her emotions. 

Yumeno tugged at her sleeves for a second before turning tail and stepping quietly out of the large room, Shirogane quickly followed suit. Kiibo stared at her a few moments more, then decided to leave as well, though he seemed hesitant at best to leave her and Ouma alone together. 

Maki turned to look back at Ouma, who had taken to cradling his arms. This wasn’t right  _ at all _ . His eyes had drifted from the floor to the exit, glaring at it like if he focused hard enough he could set it ablaze. Then it clicked.

_ He knew. _

Had Saihara told him? It would explain why Ouma was so upset over his death, though she didn’t think they were that close. Maki had only found out during the trial for Atua’s sake, and she didn’t think he’d tell the local delinquent about Shirogane being the mastermind over his last close friend. Had he figured it out himself? That could certainly explain why he was barely ever around during their downtime. Or had he simply come to this conclusion the same way Maki had? Ouma was extremely intelligent, but could he read Saihara that well? 

Maki let out a loud huff. None of that mattered now, what mattered was that Ouma knew Shirogane was the mastermind and now she wasn’t alone in sharing this information. 

“Hey,” she called, her voice too loud, echoing through the room. Ouma flinched, curling into himself more. She frowned, her voice was too rough. (She hated it in all honesty, though she would admit it was helpful when attempting to look threatening.) “We’ll make sure she gets what’s coming to her.” 

His head whipped around to face her, violet eyes wide, they looked almost innocent with how glassy and red they were from crying. His fingers had stopped rubbing circles into his arms and instead gripped his uniform tight enough that she swore it was soon to shred. In fact, Maki thought he looked like if she made the wrong move he’d book it to the nearest safe space. 

She pulled her words together carefully, with a delicate thread that she’d tie off neatly. “She’s not going to hurt anyone else.” 

Ouma continued watching her like she’d just spoken a dead language. Maki thought she saw fear in his eyes, before he blinked, and then it looked like a mask had shifted over his childish face. That couldn’t hide the fact that his eyes were still raw and teary-eyed however. She tried to offer him a confident look, but she was sure she only managed to accomplish a sort of grimace. 

He frowned and looked to the slate-grey ground beneath them. “Whatever,” He mumbled, taking a step back, before slowly turning around and walking towards the exit. She watched as he hesitated by the door, lifting a pale hand to the frame and slowly looking back at her. With brows knitted together he opened his mouth like he was going to say something more, but he must have thought better of it, because he closed it and just as silently left the room, leaving Maki alone. 

It was 12:21 according to the clock across from her, her friend's blood had seeped into her clothes and was now hugging her skin, and Maki was going to end this killing game. She was going to make sure every one of them was going to get out of this alive, even if she had to break this building down herself, she’d do it. Brick by brick, Maki was going to destroy this school. 

**Author's Note:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING!!!!!! I hope you liked it! Also i love reading your comments so feel free to leave some!!!!! <3<3<3<3
> 
> P.S. listen to Will Wood and The Tapeworms, they make very chaotic music and I love them a lot


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